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Monday, March 3, 2014

Laissez le Bon Temps Rouler...until the Hairnets show up...

I purchased a brand new Deep Fryer on
Friday. (smirk) Because, you can't fry eight pounds of alligator in a
Fry Baby with three legs.

It seems almost politically incorrect
to admit that I ever fry anything. But in my defense, I only use
vegetable oil AND the deep fried food which prompted this discussion
is for a celebration with the word FAT in its name.

That's right. Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras.

Now, let's clarify a few things.

I am not from New Orleans. Or
Louisiana. Or Rio de Janiero for you Carnivale fans.

I was not raised in a household which
gave things up for Lent.

And yes, I did say eight pounds of
alligator.

Just where do you get eight pounds of
alligator?

(Not the weirdest question I have ever
been asked.)

Surprisingly, gator is readily
available here on the Coast of Illinois.* However, before I realized
that we ordered it online from CajunGrocer.com. And as I am mostly
brand loyal, I continue to order from them. They promise prompt
delivery of humanely raised, hand fed gator which is massaged daily
and when gastronomically euthanized the skin is turned into the
finest shoes for underprivileged cowboys.

I may exaggerate a little.

CajunGrocer.com does offer tenderized
one pound packets of frozen gator tail meat packed in dry ice and
delivered within three to five business days. They also offer a
multitude of other Mardi Gras and every other day Louisiana type food
products.

The City Boy gator costs $3 more a pound and is more rat than gator.

But why? Why would you need eight
pounds of alligator?

um...twelve pounds of gator...

You see, we throw a Mardi Gras party
nearly every year and nothing says Let's Celebrate the Beginning
of Holy Season and/or It is Almost Spring and Maybe This &^$(#&
Snow Will Go Away like deep fat frying a huge reptile.

Plus, my family LOVES gator. So eight
pounds go to the party, two pounds go to the family immediately after
the party and two more pounds sit in my freezer until I get sick of
moving the packages around and fry them too.

And this year frying all that gator was
a delight. Because I have a new Deep Fryer. Step aside Fry Baby and
make room for the Lipitornator!

This baby comes with a removable mesh
basket, a thermostat, a lid to control the spatter and it breaks down
into five pieces for easy cleaning. Never has it been so easy to make
food that will clog your arteries and make party goers shout
'Huzzah!'

(There may have been one 'huzzah'.)

Part of our decorations. What you can't see are the 700 strands of
lights strung all around the ceiling of the entire upstairs which won't
be taken down until sometime in May because honestly, they are just so
festive.

Actually, the Coast of Illinois has a
long tradition of celebrating Mardi Gras. The Soulard neighborhood of
St. Louis has the second largest celebration (next to New Orleans) in
the United States. There may be some debate but all you other cities
can forget about it. Soulard has been around since before Lewis and
Clark and is the closest thing to the French Quarter you can get.
Plus, we have the Mississippi River. So neener.

The 'Parade Marshal' designation was a little misleading. Only two more years and I will be allowed back on the parade route.

I worked the parade one year when
the hospital I worked for was asked to run the first aid tent. This
was early in the history of Soulard Mardi Gras. The biggest injury we
had to deal with was when one of the other nurses nearly ran over her
own foot playing with the golf cart they let us use for emergencies.
We did see some bare boobs, it was Mardi Gras after all. And the
Mardi Gras association provided the most amazing buffet for
volunteers in the upstairs of Soulard Market.

But the live ones are at the Pet Shop.
Which is at the other end of the market...

(If you have the time and curiosity, click on each 'hairnet' reference. I am constantly surprised by how often my friends and I have seen random hairnets and even more surprised at how often I have written about them. Also - the pics of Otter and me in the hairnets were courtesy of my friends Mel and Joy, videographers extraordinaire.)

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Blah Blah...

I'm a landlocked beach bum here on the Coast of Illinois. No...not that Coast, you know, the one with broad shoulders. The other Coast. The one with tug boats and Arches and a bunch of ancient dead guys buried in Mounds.
I am an inadvertent sailor-thanks to my husband and our 15 foot handmade wooden sloop...for which I made the sails!
I am here to promote the beach bum lifestyle, even when surrounded by corn and clay and I hope to point out the everyday weirdness that is easy to miss because once you start seeing hairnets, you will never stop seeing hairnets.

I have a palm tree necklace. It set us back a whole ten dollars, purchased on the boardwalk in Destin, Florida during the first trip ...

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